ETX authorities release surveillance video in fatal hit and run wreck

East Texas authorities need help finding the person who hit and killed a Smith County motorcyclist.

Not only did someone hit him, but they dragged his bike for nearly a mile and then left the scene.

DPS says early Sunday morning, the driver of a dark-colored truck hit the motorcyclist on Highway 64 East, just six miles outside of Tyler.

Joey Allen took us to the place his friend Jacky Jonston died early Sunday. It's the same place the two met 13 years ago.

"I ran out of gas in front of his house one night on the bike, and I walked across the street," says Allen, "I asked him if I could borrow some gas and his wife, Sharon, she stuck her head out the door and said, 'You want some breakfast?' and we were friends ever since."

Jonston was 65-years-old and nicknamed "ZZ" by friends for his ZZ Top beard. Though, they say sometimes he was called grumpy, "He always had something to say about something and he was grumping about it," says Allen.

Allen runs Smith County Cycles and built the bike Jonston was driving. He says Jonston's wife had passed away and he was just starting to get out and about again.

"He was a member of our club for many years. He was a good guy, no doubt about it. He'd do anything for you if he had the means and ways to do it," says Allen.

In Valero gas station surveillance video, a truck can be seen pushing Jonston's motorcycle down the highway. That video is what little evidence authorities have to track down the driver. DPS says the truck slammed into the back of Jonston's bike just as he was turning in to his driveway.

"You can see where they came back on the right side of the road, and you can see the skid marks from his bike tires sliding all the way over the hill," says Allen.

"The unidentified vehicle continued on down the road, and at some point stopped, realized something and dislodged the motorcycle," says DPS trooper Jean Dark.

Allen says he's not a vindictive person, but he's angry and wants to know who did this to his friend.

"I really truly wish somebody could man up and say what they did because the real disgrace in it is not owning up to what you did," he says.

Allen has driven up and down the road looking for clues, and with his eyes peeled for the truck that could have killed Jonston.

Authorities are asking anyone who may have seen the wreck or noticed a dark blue or black Ford heavy duty truck with front-end damage to contact them.

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